Sunday, September 19, 2010

So tomorrow will be a sort of a dust off for the upcoming week. It starts with doing some final touches on cleaning the apartment, then meeting Syntium at the train, and afterwards probably lots of walking around in the city, buying food for the days ahead, etc, and pizza of course. Then before it's too late it's time to put my vote for what party I think should sit in the Swedish parliament.

I'll vote Pirate Party ("Piratpartiet") by the way, and I strongly disagree in that it would be a "wasted vote". Many Swedish citizens strongly dislike the recent shameless introduction of mass surveillance ("FRA") and how the entertainment industry (or rather the panicking middle-men of the entertainment industry) bought themselves far too much privileges to act as a privately owned police force ("IPRED"). Not to mention the upcoming ACTA treaty and the data retention legislation (or whatsitcalled) that will for example effectively turn your mobile phone into a tracking device (with a long and convenient history) for the government. Add to this that "We promise we're not nazis"-nazis ("SD") are blatantly marching into the political arena in Sweden with all sorts of anti-foreigner/anti-homosexual views and values. Do we really want a perfect control and tracking system in place that keeps track of where you were when you spoke to who and when when they get a seat in the parliament? In fact, do we want such a system, period? (The answer to that is No, by the way, we don't want that.) The government should be transparent to the people, not the other way around.

Regardless if the Pirate Party actually gets a seat in the parliament in any way, every percent of votes on them will make a clear mark that these questions are very important for a lot of people, and that the established parties can't keep ignoring these questions. The thing is that during the debates leading up to the election, there have been an active strategy not to bring the subjects of mass surveillance and private police (among other things) up. Naturally, since both the left and right side really want the same thing. The left side just call it that they'll "tear the mass surveillance down... and rebuild it but with new make-up so that you'll actually believe the bullshit that the mass surveillance is protecting your integrity or whatever". It's like saying hey, I put a camera over your toilet - but it's ok, it only records in black and white.

Yes, they are a focused party without an "all encompassing" political agenda. For some reason, some people claim that voting for such a party is an irresponsible thing to do. I don't understand that, because at the same time, when asked these people don't even know the entire agenda of the party they're voting for. So, I know my party's agenda and views, agree with them 100%, and I'm the irresponsible voter compared to someone who doesn't even know what they're voting for?

It is true; the Pirate Party's tactics is that they'll "sell" themselves to the side/party that are prepared to give them the best deal. In exchange for a strong voice concerning the Pirate Party's core principles in the parliament, they will automatically vote for whatever their "host" is voting for. Admittedly this is a bit scary, but it's a risk I'm willing to take. If I were to vote either right or left (and don't kid yourself - a vote on any left-wing party is effectively a vote on S and a vote on any right-wing party is a vote for M), I know there are hidden agendas and I know I'm actively and directly giving my support to people with views that I simply don't fully support. Both sides have huge faults (namely Thomas Bodström, the ultra sex moralist, and Beatrice Ask, the woman who suggested punishing people suspected of having bought sex by sending specially colored envelopes to them for the neighbours and family to see) who are probably secretly dancing naked hand-in-hand over meadows (metaphorically speaking of course) after their success in... "protecting" us. Guess what positions they held/hold (respectively)? Why, minister of justice, of course. What better place to put them than where they can do as much damage as possible.

The bottom line; it is certainly not a vote wasted. It's one of the most deliberate and concrete stands one can make in this election (the other one being the racist party probably even thought they seem to want to embed their true agenda in an all encompassing political bag of garbage like everybody else).

Anyway, after the voting there's bound to be a bit of chilling and whatever followed by bed and then Monday. That's when I'm going on a tour at Karlsborg's Fortress, but first there's probably a bit of showing J around town/the apartment/whatever. Again - if anyone knows of any nice apartments that she could rent, give me a shout.

Now, bed!

EDIT: Oh and apparently Minecraft has a free-to-play weekend while the developer Notch sorts some server hick-ups out. That means that you can download the game and play it until he's fixed things without needing a payed-for account! Get hooked! Join us! We have bread and sheep!